Horace Walpole Quotes

I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.

The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

We are largely the playthings of our fears. To one, fear of the dark; to another, of physical pain; to a third, of public ridicule; to a fourth, of poverty; to a fifth, of loneliness ... for all of us, our particular creature waits in ambush.

Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.

Pedants make a great rout about criticism, as if it were a science of great depth, and required much pains and knowledge--criticism however is only the result of good sense, taste and judgment--three qualities that indeed seldom are found together, and extremely seldom in a pedant, which most critics are.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.

By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.

In the drawing room [of the Queen's palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid's foot between Venus's thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied "Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.

I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel - a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

I know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or betrayed me, if they had walked on all fours.

Serendipity... You will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip': as their Highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.

It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.

A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.

To act with common sense according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know.

Justice is rather the activity of truth, than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others, and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie.

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

This world is a comedy, not Life.

The sure way of judging whether our first thoughts are judicious, is to sleep on them. If they appear of the same force the next morning as they did over night, and if good nature ratifies what good sense approves, we may be pretty sure we are in the right.

History is a romance that is believed; romance, a history that is not believed.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

Every drop of ink in my pen ran cold.

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable.

Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.

It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.

Cunning is neither the consequence of sense, nor does it give sense. A proof that it is not sense, is that cunning people never imagine that others can see through them. It is the consequence of weakness.

I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.

At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.

When Shakespeare copied chroniclers verbatim, it was because he knew they were good enough for his audiences. In a more polished age he who could so move our passions, could surely have performed the easier task of satisfying our taste.

I look upon paradoxes as the impotent efforts of men who, not having capacity to draw attention and celebrity from good sense, fly to eccentricities to make themselves noted.

Our [British] summers are often, though beautiful for verdure, so cold, that they are rather cold winters.

The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.

A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not mis-become a monarch.

I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded air of superiority.

King René of Anjou [(1409-80)]was a strange compound of amiable, great and trifling qualities. He was so excellent a sovereign as to acquire the surnom of the Good. He was brave in war, delighted in tournaments and wrote on them, instituted festivals and processions, partly religious and partly burlesque, was a fond husband, a romantic lover, a good painter for that age, and a true philosopher.

Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

Old friends are the great blessings of one's later years. Half a word conveys one's meaning. They have a memory of the same events, have the same mode of thinking. I have young relations that may grow upon me, for my nature is affectionate, but can they grow To Be old friends?

I sit with my toes in a brook, And if any one axes forwhy? I hits them a rap with my crook, For 'tis sentiment does it, says I.

Two clergymen disputing whether ordination would be valid without the imposition of both hands, the more formal one said, "Do you think the Holy Dove could fly down with only one wing?

Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school.

He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.